2011 Financial Statement for Operation of the Centre: Losses Continue to Stack Up

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The financial results from the operation of The Centre showed a loss of $502,806 for calendar year 2011. The accumulated operating deficit since the opening of The Centre was up to $7,568,581 as of December 31, 2011. The losses have been absorbed by Vanderburgh County.

The Centre lost money in the years that the Executive Inn was adjacent to it and have continued to mount up since the City of Evansville demolished the hotel to make way for the Ford Center. The interest on the debt incurred to build The Centre is not specifically addressed in the report. If the interest is in another account the cumulative losses would be increased by that amount.

2011_Centre_Review

24 COMMENTS

  1. Lets Refocus! Trim our losses, and move on.–Time to give it the “Roberts Treatment”, and turn the space into a High Dollar parking lot to service the Arena.

  2. This report only deals with the OPERATIONS of The Centre, it has nothing to do with the FINANCING of the debt obligations.

      • Precisely. The cost to taxpayers is the SUM of the debt service (P + i) AND the Operating Losses, which are $ 7,600,000 as of 12-31-2011.

        • So if the Centre had a note of say $30 Million at 5% interest when it was opened does that mean the first year losses would be $1.5 Million more than they reported? If this is true by the time it is paid off there are real cash losses of probably $70 Million or so.

  3. Pardon me if I do not get all exercised over the fact that the Ford Center is losing money.

    Has everyone forgotten about what appears on page 41 (City Contracts) of this report:

    http://media.courierpress.com/media/static/gh56ftfg2.pdf

    Is no one going to look into this any farther than the SBOA did? Six years of contracts between the City of Evansville and SM&G with no reporting of any kind!

    State statute required an independent audit be performed for every year. That didn’t happen. Mayor Weinzapfel had the contract language changed to lower the annual audit, in violation of statute, to an annual review. The annual reviews did not happen either!

    Who is going to do the forensics on these contracts for 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011?

    The longer you wait the more time people have to cover their tracks! There could be tens, or even hundreds, of thousands of dollars missing from these accounts!

    You can not simply sweep this under the rug no matter how much the current mayor and the current city council would to do that.

    I am shocked that the State of Indiana has not stepped in here. I assume there position is to wait the rubes out!

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    • And now the elected officials wish to add another contract with SMG. SHAME. Let the audit for 2006-2011 come first.

      • Are the city council reading this? Try freezing new contracts untill things are up to snuff on past contracts.

    • SBOA is NOT an “enforcement” agent, their mandate is to expose at audit. They did their job! Now, where are the people who prosecute violations of state statute? Wouldn’t that be our local county prosecutor?

      How about getting off your ass Nick Hermann and look into these management contracts between the city and SM&G from 2006 to 2011.

      Do we need to draft a petition signed by a host of local citizens requesting you to move on this? You surely can not be in favor of sweeping this under the rug.

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        • How would one know what sort of activity went on? With no audits and no reviews, and it is anyone’s guess how much money moved through those accounts in 6 years time. It certainly appears as if someone were trying to hide those figures.

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          • You told the prosecutor to get off his ass and do something….you are making some pretty strong accusations.

          • Did you read the audit report? It stated that statute was violated for all six years by not performing annual audits. Do you fully understand what that means and why that statute exists?

            From your tone I get the feeling that you are one of those interested in sweeping this under the rug.

            Well I am going to continue to raise hell about this until something is done!

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        • CONTRACTS (City)
          As stated in several prior reports, the City entered into a contract with SMG, effective January 1,
          2006, to manage Roberts Stadium, Victory Theater, and Mesker Music Theater. The contract required an
          independent audit of SMG. An addendum to the contract was added on September 5, 2007, amending the
          contract from requiring an audit to requiring a review. As of July 2012, a review had not been completed for
          the years 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, or 2011. Without the independent review of SMG’s financial records
          the accuracy of amounts paid to or received from SMG cannot be verified.
          Payments made or received for contractual services should be supported by a written contract. Each
          governmental unit is responsible for complying with the provisions of its contracts. (Accounting and Uniform
          Compliance Guidelines Manual for Cities and Towns, Chapter 7)

          • FAILURE TO COMPLY

            Any public officer who shall fail or neglect to follow the direction of the state examiner in keeping the accounts of the office, or who shall refuse the state examiner, deputy examiner or field examiner access to the
            books, accounts, papers, documents or cash drawer or cash of the office, or who shall in any way interfere with such examiners in the discharge of their official duties, commits a Class B infraction and forfeits his office. [IC
            5-11-1-10]

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          • Audit Costs

            Audit costs incurred because of theft and shortage may be the personal obligation of the responsible official or employee.

            Audit costs or other costs incurred because of poor records, nonexistent records or other inadequate bookkeeping practices may be the personal obligation of the responsible official or employee of the governmental
            unit.

            Any outside audit costs paid, not authorized by statute, may be considered a duplication of service and an unnecessary expense. These payments may be the personal obligation of the responsible official or employee.

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  4. What was the total cost of the Centre? Believe it was upwards of 100 million? So, if this is correct? The source of the revenue was Food and Beverage taxes, so, Revenue Bonds? Interest rate probably 4-5% So, interest probably 4 million or so per year times ten..If this is close to the facts, this project was crazy!!!

    • —and The City’s Leadership did a Doubleddown on the horse “Crazy” with the Arena Treasury Raid.

      The future is apparently to, Doubledown again, this time and finance a syndicate horse named “Hotel”, again from the Public Treasury.

      The Local Politico Favorite, “Bendover”,tho fondly remembered, has been retired to Stud.

    • irisheyes….you are way off on the cost of the centre….more in the neighborhood of 35 million.

  5. With losses this large, why are the Vanderburgh County Commissioners pushing to have SMG take on a larger role. It would appear prudent to me to get rid of SMG and have one organization manage all city and county venues.

    Who in county government is the prime mover in favor of SMG?

    The city government had a reason to get rid of SMG from managing the Ford Center.

  6. Your correct. I hear that the past Mayor didn’t like SMG mamagement telling him to build the storage area at the same time they built the Ford Center.

    It’s is now obvious that the past Mayor didn’t like anyone to tell him what to do so he canned them!

    Bottom line, if he would had added the storage area the project would had went way over budget.

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